{"id":21399,"date":"2018-03-26T07:15:20","date_gmt":"2018-03-26T15:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=21399"},"modified":"2019-07-31T08:05:34","modified_gmt":"2019-07-31T16:05:34","slug":"feds-scrutinize-pinnacle-sale-diamond-jacks-gets-prominent-supporter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/feds-scrutinize-pinnacle-sale-diamond-jacks-gets-prominent-supporter\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds scrutinize Pinnacle sale; Diamond Jacks gets prominent supporter"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the big continue to get bigger, Penn National Gaming<\/strong> is two steps closer<\/a> to becoming a 20-state, 41-casino mammoth. West Virginia<\/strong> and Pennsylvania<\/strong>‘s regulatory bodies have signed off on its absorption of Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong>. Penn, however, is not counting its chickens \"\"before they’re hatched. Among other remaining hurdles there’s the small matter of a Federal Trade Commission<\/strong> request — the second one<\/a> — for\u00a0\u201cadditional information and documentary materials.\u201d The FTC’s concern is whether Penn’s sale of four casinos to Boyd Gaming<\/strong> was sufficient to dispel potential monopolies.\u00a0\u201cThis was a very complex four-party transaction and we took a look holistically at the deal and what we needed to handle regulatory approval at the state and federal level,\u201d said Penn CEO Timothy Wilmott<\/strong>, alluding to the participation of Gaming & Leisure Properties<\/strong> in what was one of the most convoluted gaming mergers we’ve ever seen.<\/p>\n

* Normally, we don’t like to see Louisiana<\/strong> governors butting into parish votes on whether to host a casino or not, but Bayou State\u00a0Gov. John Bel Edwards<\/strong> (D) hails from Tangipahoa Parish<\/strong>, which wants Diamond Jacks<\/strong> \"\"casino — as does the governor. “If the election is called, I will vote for it,” he said, putting his franchise where his mouth is. Gov. Edwards isn’t alone. All eight Tangipahoa Parish mayors support the casino as does the sheriff — who happens to be the guv’s brother. In 1996, the parish voted to host riverboat gambling, to no avail, but that’s an encouraging precedent. Diamond Jacks and local politicians believe a casino could peel off some of the $260 million a year that leaves Louisiana, headed for Mississippi<\/strong>\u00a0casinos. It would also alleviate an “underserved area” on Lake Pontchartrain<\/strong>‘s northern shore. We endorse homeboy Gov. Edwards’ endorsement.<\/p>\n

* Deutsche Bank<\/strong> analyst Carlo Santarelli<\/strong> is rather foxed by Wynn Resorts<\/strong>‘ massive stock sale to Galaxy Entertainment<\/strong>, ostensibly to \"\"help retire a financial settlement with Universal Entertainment<\/strong>. “On the surface the deal strikes us as a bit odd, given WYNN had roughly $3.1 bn of cash at 4Q end, of which $2.4 bn was in the U.S.,” write Santarelli. “In the 1Q18, WYNN will pay $2.4 bn as part of the UE settlement and an additional $336 mm to close on the LV Strip land purchase [from James Packer<\/strong>]. However, a bridge loan for $800 mm was already in place. Thus, we find the voluntary dilution a bit perplexing.”<\/p>\n

* One does not associate the Easter Bunny<\/strong> with Sin City but WalletHub<\/strong> rates Las Vegas<\/strong> as the 15th-best U.S. city in which to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ<\/strong>. Why? Well, it seems we’re fourth-best in both brunch restaurants and chocolate stores per capita, sixth in flower shops, seventh in weather forecasts (I’m actually surprised this number is not higher) and 10th in Easter-egg hunts. But we’re way down — 51st — in children age eight or younger. Procreate, Las Vegans!<\/p>\n

* Derek Stevens<\/strong> is two games away from a million-dollar payday at the Golden Nugget<\/strong>. His University of Michigan Wolverines<\/strong> are in the NCAA Final Four<\/strong>, meaning that Stevens is too wins away from taking a big chunk out of Tilman Fertitta<\/strong>‘s wallet. We have to applaud Fertitta’s cojones<\/em> in taking Stevens’ $25,000, 40-1 wager, which looks like it could pay off handsomely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the big continue to get bigger, Penn National Gaming is two steps closer to becoming a 20-state, 41-casino mammoth. West Virginia and Pennsylvania‘s regulatory bodies have signed off on its absorption of Pinnacle Entertainment. Penn, however, is not counting … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,155,201,190,96,84,35,69,95,30,33,25,129,38,139,233],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21399"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21399"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24606,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21399\/revisions\/24606"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}